For logos, signatures, stamps and drawings
A logo saved as a JPG, a scanned stamp or a signature copied out of a document all arrive with a white rectangle around them. Put them on a colored slide, a letterhead or a website header and the rectangle shows. This tool makes that plain background transparent, so only the artwork remains.
It works by color. You tell it which color is the background and it makes the pixels of that color transparent. That is why it suits flat images on a uniform background: logos, icons, signatures, stamps, charts, screenshots and line drawings.
Choosing the color and the tolerance
White is selected by default, since it is the most common case. If the background is another color, you can take the color found in the corner of the image, which is quick for a logo on a blue or gray panel, or choose a specific color yourself.
Backgrounds are rarely one exact shade. A JPG leaves faint off-white pixels around the edges of a shape, and a scan has slight variations across the page. Tolerance decides how close to the chosen color a pixel must be to count as background. Raise it if a pale halo remains around the artwork; lower it if light parts of the artwork itself begin to disappear.
Only the outside, or every area of that color
There are two modes. The first removes only the background that connects to the edges of the image. White areas enclosed inside the artwork are kept: the eyes of a mascot, the highlights in an icon, the white letters inside a colored badge. For most logos this is the mode you want.
The second removes every pixel of that color wherever it is. Use it when the background also shows through closed shapes, such as the inside of the letters O, A and P in a wordmark, or the loops of a handwritten signature.
Transparent, or a new background color
By default the background becomes transparent and the result is saved as PNG, the usual format for transparency. If you would rather have a different solid color, for instance a logo on your brand color or a stamp on cream instead of bright white, choose a replacement color and the background is filled with it.
You can process several images in one go with the same settings, which saves time with a set of icons or product drawings that share a background.
What it is not meant for
This is not a tool for cutting people or objects out of photographs. It does not recognize what is in the picture; it only compares colors. A portrait against a wall, a product on a table with shadows, or any background with texture or a gradient will give a patchy result. For flat artwork on a plain color, it does the job cleanly.
Processing happens in your browser. Your images are not uploaded or stored, there is no sign-up and no watermark, and it is free.